Dust to Dust : : A History of Jewish Death and Burial in New York / / Allan Amanik.

• VerfasserIn: Amanik, Allan,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2019]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Goldstein-Goren Series in American Jewish History ; 7
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

A revealing look at how death and burial practices influence the livingDust to Dust offers a three-hundred-year history of Jewish life in New York, literally from the ground up. Taking Jewish cemeteries as its subject matter, it follows the ways that Jewish New Yorkers have planned for death and burial from their earliest arrival in New Amsterdam to the twentieth century.Allan Amanik charts a remarkable reciprocity among Jewish funerary provisions and the workings of family and communal life, tracing how financial and family concerns in death came to equal earlier priorities rooted in tradition and communal cohesion. At the same time, he shows how shifting emphases in death gave average Jewish families the ability to advocate for greater protections and entitlements such as widows’ benefits and funeral insurance. Amanik ultimately concludes that planning for life’s end helps to shape social systems in ways that often go unrecognized.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction: Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Deeds -- 1 Toward a Market and Family Alliance Community, Kin, and Social Control in New York’s Early Jewish Graveyards, 1656– 1830 -- 2 Acts of True Kindness To Tend the Dead, to Foster Fraternalism, 1785– 1850 -- 3 “Carry Me to the Burying Place of My Fathers” Rural Cemeteries, Family Lots, and a New Jewish Social Order, 1849– 80 -- 4 Wives and Workingmen: Protecting Widows and Orphans, Affirming Husbands and Fathers, 1840– 1940 -- 5 “Fine Funeral Service at Moderate Costs” New York’s Jewish Funeral Industry, 1890– 1965 -- Conclusion: To Be Buried among Kin, To Be Buried among Jews -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author